Snowing -- Lost in Neverland
by AlwaysHopelessRomantic95
Summary: What if Snow and Charming hadn't been able to leave Neverland? If Gold hadn't had a way to cure Charming's dreamshade poison, what would they do? This is the story of how Snow and Charming take over Neverland after Pan's death, and their quest to find a way to cure Charming's poison and return to their family back in Storybrooke.


Chapter 1

Snow hadn't realized how hard she had been squeezing his hand, but when she finally let it go, her own hand ached, and she watched as David idly rubbed his. Blushing and blinking back tears, she continued to stare out over the water, watching as the ship receded into the distance.

It was always hard, having to say goodbye. But this was different. This goodbye had the ugly scent of finality to it, and yet there was nothing they could do about it. Once more, their happy ending was fading away, this time sailing away on a pirate ship.

David looked down at his wife, and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. "We will get back to them, you know," he said, trying to cheer her up. "We'll find a way, we always do."

But Snow wasn't really in the mood for hope. Hope hadn't gotten her very many happy endings recently, and this time she really didn't want to hope, just to be let down again. Turning to look at David, she said, "Do we? Because it seems like every time we find a way to solve a problem, another one comes up. I just let my daughter sail away with a pirate, knowing that we can never leave this accursed island, never see her again…" She trailed off, and then sharply turned around and walked back up the beach toward the forest.

David didn't know what to say. _I'm sorry _didn't seem like it would cut it, but what else could he do? He had taken that arrow in order to save Snow, and he knew he had done the right thing. He just never imagined she'd end up stuck here with him, paying the price anyway. Angry with himself, David shook his head to clear it. If they were going to be productive and find a way to escape this place, he couldn't afford to let himself think like that.

Looking up, David saw that his wife was making her way back into the forest, and he hurried after her. When he got to the top of the beach, he said, as nonchalantly as possible, "Well, what's first?"

"Shelter. We're not going to be moving as much as we were before, so we can make something a bit more permanent than what we've been living in." Looking around, Snow took out her knife and began to cut the foliage away and make her way back into the forest.

Following her with a smile, David said, "Yes, what is it you told me, we'd build a treehouse?"

Though he was behind her, Snow could hear the smile in his voice, and she turned around. "Yes, I did say that," she said, then added sarcastically, "and I was right. A treehouse would be suitable," then she turned around, trying not to let herself be amused by his lightness.

David couldn't resist teasing her. "When aren't you right?" he asked, laughing to himself.

When Snow turned around this time, she was smiling too. "Could you try to be a little bit less happy?" she pleaded. "We did just lose all the people we love, after all," she said, a bit more somberly.

Her mood didn't dampen David's spirit, though, and he whispered, "Not all," and grinned at her. As she grasped his meaning, she blushed and returned his grin, then gave him a quick kiss.

"No," she said, "I guess not all." Then she turned back around and continued to cut thought the underbrush of the forest.

David watched as she went to work, looking so in her element he couldn't help but continue smiling. She had lived in the forest during her time as a bandit, and watching her make her way through the forest of Neverland reminded him of the woman that had robbed him, the woman he had fallen in love with.

As if she could sense him watching her, Snow muttered, "I hope you're enjoying the show, but I could use some help," she teased.

"But you're doing such a good job," David teased back as he pulled out his own knife and began to cut away at the bushes with her.

After a while, David noticed that the sun was beginning to fall, and he realized they were going to lose daylight soon. "So," he said, breaking the silence they had had between them. "What is the plan?"

"Not much further and you'll see. Listen," Snow said, and David stopped cutting and listened.

"Water," he said, and she nodded.

"There's a river up ahead. If we are going to build a shelter, we'll need easy access to fresh water." With that, she returned to cutting through the branches, until, not long after, they arrived at a clearing on the bank of a low, fast-moving river.

"Perfect," Snow said, satisfied. "We won't have time to build much today," she muttered, glancing toward the sky as her husband had not long before. "We'll have to set up temporary camp here for the night, and then gather what we need in the morning and get to work tomorrow.

David nodded, and, taking off his backpack, he began to unroll their bedrolls and blankets. While he did so, Snow went in search of branches they could prop up and drape blankets over to create a temporary shelter for the night. Once she found some suitable branches, she dug holes, stuck them in, and buried the edges in the dirt until she was confident they would hold.

"That'll do," she said approvingly.

"Just in time, too," David said, "we're losing the light."

"We need to build a fire," Snow said, "We're going to need to cook something to eat. So they busied themselves making a fire, and then cooked what little food they had with them and settled down on a log they had fashioned as a bench.

"I'll go hunting tomorrow," Snow said, and David nodded.

They fell silent for a while, and, glancing at his wife, David saw that the look of sadness had made its way back onto her face. Knowing there wasn't much he could say, David put his arms around her and hugged her to him.

Taking a shaky breath, Snow muttered, "I hate nights in Neverland," and David nodded. "The cries of the children…" afraid she would start crying, Snow trailed off and closed her eyes. After a silence, however, she couldn't help but unburden herself to her husband. "They miss their parents. They cry every night because they are lost. And my daughter was one of them." No longer able to hold back her tears, Snow buried her head in David's shoulder.

Afraid of crying himself, David sought to reassure them both. "That map, it was a trick of Pan's. Emma may have been lost once, but she found us. She found her way home. She isn't a lost girl any more, Snow. She knows we love her."

Snow picked her head up and glared at David accusingly. "And she just rode off into the night without us!" She yelled. "We failed her again!"

Surprised at her sudden outburst, David didn't know what to say, so he just looked at her in shock. After an awkward moment, Snow realized what she had said, and closed her eyes with a sigh. "David… I'm sorry," she said, and leaned back into his shoulder.

"It's not your fault," he said, not saying aloud what they both knew he was implying. Snow wished he didn't blame himself, but then she wished she didn't blame him, too. She knew in her mind that it wasn't his fault that he had been grazed by an arrow laced with Dreamshade, but in her heart she couldn't help but feel it was his fault they were stuck in Neverland.

Realizing how unfair that was, Snow slightly shook her head. She didn't really blame him for their being stuck here, for she knew he had taken that arrow to save her. It was only in her weaker moments that she gave in to that small voice inside her, telling her it should have been her instead, telling her that if he hadn't been so valiant, she could have taken that arrow, and maybe Emma would still have one parent with her.

Snow knew where this line of thinking was going to take her, and she stopped before she went down that road. Shaking her head much as her husband had, Snow abruptly stood up. "Sitting around here feeling bad for ourselves isn't going to get us anywhere," she declared, wiping away her tears, and then looked around for something productive to do.

"Well," David sighed, rising as well, "there's nothing we can do tonight. It's dark and we aren't familiar with this forest. We'll just get ourselves in more trouble if we traipse around here after dark and fall into some trap Pan left behind or something. We might as well just go to sleep, and we'll figure out a more definite plan tomorrow."

Snow didn't want to lay down, knowing she would lay there and listen to the cries of the children all night, torturing herself until she hopefully fell asleep. She did, however, see the logic in David's plea, and she reluctantly agreed to get some sleep.

David hugged her, and whispered in her ear, "We'll be fine," before giving her a gentle kiss on the forehead. "Let's get some sleep."

Snow reluctantly followed him into their makeshift shelter, and it wasn't long before her husband's breathing told her he was asleep. But she wasn't. She was awake, listening to the boys as they cried for their families, and all she could think about was how she was going to get home to hers.


End file.
